Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a control method thereof.
Description of the Related Art
It is known that an information processing apparatus such as a PC is connected to a Web server on a network, and an operation screen provided by a Web application on the Web server is displayed on a Web browser of the information processing apparatus. In such a system, first, the Web browser of the information processing apparatus requests the operation screen from the Web application on the Web server. Then, in response to the request from the information processing apparatus, the Web application responds, to the information processing apparatus, with HTML data for displaying the operation screen on the Web browser. The Web browser of the information processing apparatus analyzes the received HTML data and displays an operation screen based on the description of the HTML data. Furthermore, if a user inputs an instruction via the operation screen displayed on the Web browser, the Web browser notifies the Web server of the input instruction. Then, the Web application on the Web server that has received this notification performs a process according to the input instruction. In order to use a setting or the like specialized in use of a certain Web application, a browser called a site-specific browser (SSB) that operates only with a single web application is also developed.
In recent years, some Multi Function Peripherals (MFPs) each including a scanner and a printer have the above-described Web browsers. It is known that there exist some Web browsers on an MFP each having a function of registering a Web site registered in a bookmark in the top menu of the MFP as a shortcut button (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2013-54435). This allows the user to access a Web application of interest not from a menu on the Web browser but from the top menu directly in the same way as accessing device applications installed in the MFP.
The device applications executed in the MFP can provide the user with an optimum user interface for each application by performing different types of settings and state management. On the other hand, since a common component, a browser, is used when a plurality of Web applications are used in the MFP, it is impossible to implement different settings and state management in accordance with the respective Web applications, and it is difficult to provide the optimum user interface for the Web application as for the device applications.